PC Jon Henry's Killer Sentenced

It was announced yesterday that the killer of PC Jon Henry (pictured above) has been sentenced to at least 25 years in a secure mental hospital. This is (very nearly) a sensible sentence, at least in comparison to the kind of short terms which are normally handed down.

However, to me, this case is even more tragic than it would be - because PC Henry should still be alive. He is not only dead because of a violent criminal, but also because of Britain's completely failed immigration policy and attempts to control its own borders.

Ikechukwu Tennyson Obih (above), PC Henry's killer, is a paranoid schizophrenic from Nigeria. He arrived in the UK in 2000, applied for asylum, and was granted indefinite leave to remain.

His symptoms began to get worse in 2005, exacerbated by alcohol and cannabis abuse, and he was prescribed medication. However, when he went to visit his father in Africa in 2006, he was advised to stop taking the pshyciatric medication and use olive oil instead.

Upon his return to Britain his condition deteriorated further, and he found himself begging. He kept having delusions and strange dreams, although his psychiatrist insists he was not in the middle of a psychotic episode at the time of the attack.

The night before he went on the rampage in Luton town centre, Obih had apparently had a dream in which he could kill a man just by touching him.

I suppose we will never really know why the attack occurred, but the facts are these; on the 11th June 2007 PC Jon Henry, 36, and 3 colleagues were called to Luton town centre.

A window cleaner, Stephen Chamberlain, had been stabbed in the back by Obih in a row over the latter standing in a spot in which the former wished to park his car.

PC Henry had only been on duty for 30 minutes, and although he was wearing a stab vest it was not fastened all the way to the top.

As they arrived on the scene, they found a second window cleaner, David Knight, trying to fend Obih off with his extendible pole.

As Obih was sprayed with CS incapacitant spray, PC Henry circled behind him and drew his baton. However Obih turned at the last minute, and PC Henry backed into a phonebox as he tried to get away.

Obih stabbed him twice in the chest, and he would later die of his injuries.

He then turned and stood over a second officer, PC Luke Glendenning, with his knife. Mr Knight, concerned for the officer's safety, struck Obih in the face with his window cleaning pole, and was stabbed in the arm for his trouble.

Obih withstood a direct hit from a plastic baton round, then was finally subdued with a taser.

In his interview he told police he was happy to have stabbed their colleague to death. He clarified that he knew he'd done wrong, but at the time he felt threatened and reacted, and he would do the same again.

PC Henry leaves behind a widow and a young daughter.

For me, the case has echoes of PC Sharon Beshenivsky (above, top), gunned down by illegal immigrants (above, bottom) with a string of convictions during an armed robbery in 2005. One was so afraid of his home country Somalia that he fled back there after murdering her, escaping through passport control by wearing a Burqua. This is despite the fact that the Home Office refused to deport him on several occasions after violent crimes - because Somalia was ruled too dangerous.

Clearly though, nothing has been learnt from this tragic waste. In January 2008 violent Somali immigrant Essa Suleiman (above) stabbed a policeman in the head and repeatedly stabbed his police dog in Swindon after the officer attempted to arrest him whilst he was attacking another Somali man.

PC Neil Sampson and his dog Anya (above) were both very lucky to survive the incident, and in December 2008 Suleiman was jailed for 9 years.

However, if this country had the appropriate background checks and measures in place to deport violent criminals, then these crimes would become a lot less frequent. We have enough violent thugs of our own.